When The Beyonder Interferes
by Alarose
Summary: Ken Kaneki wasn't quite sure how it happened, but he had somehow ended up in another world. A place with no ghouls; was this paradise? Or hell? When he is discovered by SHIELD, they offer him an ultimatum: join the Avengers, or be imprisoned for his 'feeding habits'.
1. The Ultimatum

Hey! So, I have no idea where this is going, but we'll find out together. I've got enough inspiration to last a couple of chapters, and I don't think this will be that long since I'm moving kind of quickly through the plot, so hey, I might finish it! In the meantime, I hope you enjoy! Please review!

...

Ken Kaneki looked down at the body of 'Jason' with apathetic eyes. The other ghoul's blood bathed the floor around him, and the man was twisted and whimpering, but it wasn't enough. It couldn't satisfy him, he wanted the monster who had been torturing him for so long to be begging for mercy. Ken placed his foot on the man's back, noting absently that at some point his nails had changed color.

"What is 1000 minus 7?" Ken asked, pressing down. With hardly a thought, his kagune speared Yakumo's limbs to the ground. The man grunted in pain, but only looked up at Ken with hate filled eyes. That wouldn't do. He twisted his foot, and drilled his Kagune into the man's limbs further, removing one of his legs completely.

"What is 1000 minus 7?" He asked again dispassionately. He cracked one of his fingers in tension. A small voice whimpered below him.

"Louder. What is 1000 minus 7?"

"993! 986...979," Yakumo began counting down, his voice choking on blood. Still, Ken did not find enough pleasure. He felt cold and empty. Perhaps...yes, that could work, he thought to himself, reaching up towards his head. With a groan and a bit of pain, mild in comparison to the torture he had undergone recently, he forced his hand into his ear, breaking the side of his skull to be able to reach the red headed centipede buried in his inner ear. He pulled it out carefully to make sure it wasn't damaged. The moment Yakumo saw it he began to scream, begging for release.

Ken didn't care about the man's pathetic sobs as he set the centipede into Yakumo's ear, where it began burrowing. Ken finally allowed the sides of his lips to twitch upward, in a small sadistic smile as he listened to his tormentor's screams. He watched for a minute, before hearing a distant explosion. Ken frowned once more and turned towards the door to leave. Quite suddenly, he wanted to be gone, gone, gone from this place.

"You...can't..." A voice said. At the same moment, a hand gripped his ankle. Ken turned to look down at the dying man blankly. Without Ken's healing factor, the other man would not survive the centipede burrowing through his head.

"You...won't..." Yakumo said, looking up to meet Ken's eyes with a burning hatred driving him through the pain. His other hand pulled a small controller from his pocket weakly. Ken moved quickly, but Yakumo was faster as he pressed down. Suddenly, the floor beneath them dropped. A moment later, Ken found himself in a sea of red. He was surrounded by kagune, the vital organ of ghouls. The ceiling closed above him, but he could still see from the light of the glow of the organs. How were they still alive?

A drip landing on his nose answered him. He glanced up and saw the faint cracks of light through the floor. Blood would drip down here from the torture sessions, feeding the starving kagune enough to keep them going, even without a body. However, if they were still alive, then Ken might be in some danger. He glanced down to see the kagune around his feet had already begun to swell up, slowly moving to cover him and Yakumo's body was already almost halfway devoured by the monstrous pile. A slight stinging on the bottoms of his feet told him the kagune were already trying to absorb him.

Ken grit his teeth and leapt off the pile, but he only landed on another. He used his kagune to try and find an exit, or force one, but the entire place was reinforced. Kagune covered the walls, preventing him from simply breaking down the metal, and the ceiling was too far above him to be able to reach and still have enough power to break through it. He tried to find the remote to open the ceiling, but it seemed Yakumo got the last laugh as it had vanished beneath the slowly writhing red mass. Ken hated the man. He hadn't known it was possible to hate a person this much, but he felt like he was burning up from so much hatred. He just wanted the world to burn as recompense for what he had undergone.

"Agh!" He screamed, echoing his pain around the empty chamber; calling for help in a way he didn't even realize was happening. Dimensions away, a strange being beyond anything else spared Ken Kaneki a thought, changing his life forever.

'This is...a very strong, realized desire. He will never flower there, but maybe if he was elsewhere.'

A strange looking machine materialized in the midst of the kagune. Ken looked at it for a moment, approaching it. It looked rather like a large soup thermos, but with a door on the side just the right size for him to enter. Giving one last glance at the kagune that had been gnawing on his feet and the resulting blood trails, he decided he had nothing left to lose, and so stepped in. There was a sound, a whirring, and then silence. Ken blinked, that seemed easy enough. He opened the door and raised an arm to protect his eyes.

With a strange feeling of foreboding and hope, Ken stepped out of the machine and into the sunlight.

...

It had been two years since then. Ken had stepped out to find himself in another world, in a place where there were no ghouls, and in America, of all things. Luckily, he knew a fair bit of English from school, and he had improved drastically while living here. He had landed in California, and after heading to LA it wasn't that hard to find someone who could forge some paperwork for him. Furthermore, there were plenty of murders and suicides in LA, he just had to keep an eye open for witnesses when he was eating. The problem was made easier by getting a new mask, as well as a wig since his white hair stood out so much.

However, he had been struggling with finding work. He had been a college student, so he could fake high school papers, but the only local college that wouldn't check his background was a community college, and that still required money for a tuition. He had no history to get a loan, and he couldn't get a grant from the college without proof of his accomplishments from outside sources. So, in the end, he had to temporarily give up on getting his college degree and just settle for working.

"Just a muffin, please," the lady ordered. Ken nodded, and grabbed a muffin from behind the counter to hand to the customer.

"Anything else?" He asked. She shook her head. "That'll be 3.79, thank you," said Ken, ringing her up. As the woman left, Lisa, Ken's boss, came running out from the kitchen in a rush with her jacket on.

"Hey, Ken! I need you to close up shop! An emergency came up at home!" She said quickly, zipping up her coat.

"Alright!" Ken called back. A moment later, the door closed and Ken knew he was alone, sweeping up the shop. 'Lisa's Table' was nothing like Anteiku, there was much less camaraderie and such between the workers for one, but the boss was nice and the pay wasn't minimum wage, the patrons and such also ignored his odd coloring and his eye-patch. Ken could make a living for now, even if the feeling of loneliness gnawed at him from the inside. He missed his friends, and he hadn't been able to really strike up any friendships with anyone here.

"Sorry, we're closed," Ken said, hearing the door bell chime as the door opened.

"Ken Kaneki, you are under arrest," a voice said. Ken turned in shock, his eyes wide to see a large bald dark-skinned man staring him down with one eye. He was dressed in a long black trench coat, and entering the store behind him was a blond haired man holding a metal bow and arrow.'

"For what?" Ken asked carefully, taking a step back.

"The desecration of at least 22 corpses," the man said sharply. Ken's face slowly molded into apathy. How had the police of this world managed to track him, when the investigators of his own, specially trained in ghoul hunting, had not?

"I see," Ken said slowly. He angled his body slightly, preparing himself for a quick fight. He would probably have to head to another state. Did the state police communicate between each other? He couldn't remember.

"Now, I'm not here for a fight. Rather, I'm here to make you an offer," the man said. Ken blinked in confusion, was he fighting or not?

"An offer?" He asked.

"Yes. I am Director Nick Fury, and I have 50 of my best agents, armed with everything from pistols to snipers waiting outside the shop. You can either be forcefully arrested, or you can come along peacefully. If you do come peacefully, then we are willing to give you quite a bit of leeway in your sentencing."

"Why so many? I haven't killed anybody," Ken said, puzzled. Besides, it wasn't like guns could hurt him. Even if a bullet did manage to pierce his skin, he could heal it right away, so long as they didn't hit his kagune.

"Correct, another reason why we are willing to give you leeway. However, we have been watching you for about a year and a half now, and we have seen you make the same jumps as all the suicide victims you end up eating, yet you never end up dead. Furthermore, you have demonstrated some combat abilities at the cage matches downtown, haven't you? I suspect you are capable of even more than what we have actually seen," he explained. Ken frowned. It was true, though, that he hadn't used his kagune in almost two years. He hadn't needed it, and for a long time after coming here, using it hurt. A large part of that was the chemicals and such from his torture, and his forceful release of it so quickly after. Nonetheless, it put him in the habit of not using it, and without any other ghouls in the area to fight, he just hadn't needed to.

Ken saw the bow and arrow grimace a bit at the 'eating' part and felt himself bristle a bit. It wasn't his fault he had to eat people to survive! Fury continued without provocation, as if not noticing the interplay.

"Fortunately for you, this all lends itself to your case. We are willing to overlook your...habits, seeing as you've not killed anyone, in return for your cooperation on the Avenger's Initiative Project." Ken looked at him, confused.

"Avenger's Initiative?" He asked.

"A gathering of skilled or extremely talented individuals, who combined form Earth's last line of defense against anyone or anything that might threaten it. You agreeing to be a part of it would mean that if we need your help for a case, you come running," Fury explained. Ken thought over the words for a moment, puzzled.

"But in the meantime, you leave me alone?" He asked.

"Correct. Until the moment you kill someone, then we will come down on you with no mercy," Fury said, face hardening as he looked at Ken. Ken's eyes narrowed, he didn't need to kill for food, anyway, even if it would taste better fresh. Though he had accepted his ghoul side, there was still some human in him, and it didn't feel right.

"If I agree, you'll leave me alone? And my fighting style is very violent, would I be arrested?" Ken asked.

"Yes, as I already said. And I believe that I can trust you to gauge the situation correctly, your psychological profile indicates that you are generally a quiet and thoughtful person," said Fury. Ken couldn't help but think to himself that it was only his human half that was that way, when he allowed himself to eat and indulge his ghoul side, there was not as much thought involved. He had been working to fix that, but still. Anyway though, it sounded like a good deal. Too good of a deal. But he already knew the catch, he could be pulled away at any moment to fight a 'global threat', but how often did those occur? And why approach him now, and not a year ago if they had been watching him for that long? Yet, perhaps there were others like him, maybe not ghouls, but people who didn't quite fit in to the normal mold.

"Alright, I accept," Ken said carefully. Fury nodded.

"I'll hold you to that," he said, before turning. "Oh, and Kameki? Do try to avoid the local police. We won't be able to help you if you get caught by them, too much negative media attention." With that, Fury walked out of the small coffee shop. The bowman silently followed behind and Ken locked the front door behind them before resting his head lightly on the frame. Why did he have a feeling he would be called for soon? And avoid the local police? Did that mean that these guys were not local? Then, were they from a central base? Or an even larger organization?

Ken sighed, at least he had managed to get his freedom without bloodshed. It would have been a shame to kill them all, he probably would have ended up with a target on his back from law enforcement the world over. He finished sweeping up the shop and closed up. He kind of felt like getting something to eat.

…

"Regular black coffee please, no sugar or anything in it," the man said. Ken blinked, not sure if he was seeing him correctly. Tony Stark, ordering a coffee? Didn't he have a personal chef, or something like that?

"Ah, sure, that'll be $4.53," Ken said. The man reached into his pocket and pulled out a couple of bills, allowing Ken to ring him up quickly. Stark held out his hand for his change, and as he pocketed it, he casually spoke:

"And make it fast, Hannibal, I'm in a bit of a hurry today." Ken froze for a fraction of a second, before calmly meeting the smirking face of the billionaire.

"Of course, sir," he replied, turning to quickly fill the man's order. Bringing a coffee to the front once more, he handed it to Stark, who held it up to him in a gesture of thanks, before the man walked out of the shop. Just how many people knew about him?

…

It was a couple weeks later, when Ken was sitting in his apartment, that he saw the news. He casually put down the human arm he had been chewing on, a snack leftover from last night, and looked at the screen blankly. An image of a crater sat there, as the newscaster spoke.

"...no one is quite sure of what was researched there, but last night a secret government facility collapsed, killing hundreds of workers and burying whatever may have been inside. Officials have declined to give any comments regarding the situation." Ken watched the clips of people digging out the dead bodies, and absently wondered if he could head over there and get a small stockpile of food. Probably not, too much media attention.

Ken's ear twitched as he heard a vibrating sound. He glanced around as saw a small black cell phone sitting on his table, the screen lit up blue. It had arrived anonymously in the mail about two weeks prior, three guesses who it was from. He wondered if he could get away with ignoring it. Of course, if he was being called for a legitimate global threat, well, he could hardly leave humans to deal with it alone, could he? He reached over and put the phone to his ear.

"Hello?"

"Kaneki, I need you to be ready to leave, now. An agent will be there within a couple minutes to pick you up." said Fury over the phone.

"Alright," Ken said, glancing at the arm. He could throw it in the freezer once the agent got there. He would have to change shirts though, this was the one he wore when he was eating to avoid staining his others. Fury sharply hung up the phone and, a second later, the doorbell rang. So much for a couple minutes. Ken sighed and went to the door, opening it carefully to see a balding middle-aged man standing there.

"Hello, you must be Ken Kaneki? I am Agent Coulson, here to take you to where the Avenger's are meeting up," the man said, holding out his hand. Ken blinked as he stared at the man blankly, the man hadn't even flinched at his blood covered appearance. Ken didn't take the offered hand, his own were covered in blood, but he did open the door further to let the man inside.

"Please wait a moment while I get changed," Ken said quietly as Coulson stepped into the small studio apartment. The agent eyed the bodiless arm sitting on the kitchen table, but no emotion flashed across his face. No disgust, no hate, and no curiosity. Ken picked up the arm and threw it into the freezer. He hated freezing things for long, the blood expanded and bruised the surrounding tissue, taking away a lot of the flavor. It probably wouldn't be much good by the time he got back.

With that, he grabbed a change of shirt from his drawer and stepped into the bathroom. An already dead arm not attached to a body didn't bleed that much, so he just needed to rinse his face and change his shirt. He dipped his hands into the water and scrubbed them to get the little bit of blood off, before bringing it up to his lips. He looked up at himself in the mirror, his sole eye and the eye-patch looking back at him. His white hair seemed to shine in the dim light, but he was glad to note that some of his black hair was starting to grow back. Though, now it looked like an odd dye job, because it wasn't growing back evenly. At least his nails had faded back to normal, he had gotten sick and tired of his black nails grabbing people's attention. He pulled off his blood stained hoodie and dropped it onto the floor, pulling on a clean black one over his his dark gray shirt. He glanced at his reflection and wondered whether he should bring his mask.

If he did, he would need to get a new one for eating, he had little doubt that he would get photographed while working with the Avengers. So far, not cops had seen him (as far as he knew), so he should be fine for using it for this. Masks were sold fairly commonly here, unlike back home where they were associated with ghouls. Ken reached up to his bathroom cabinet, opening it and pulling out the mask. He wore a wig while eating, so his unique hair shouldn't be that big of a deal. If he was going to fight something dangerous, the fear factor from the mask could be a benefit.

After looking at the mask for a moment, he reached up and tied it around his face, removing his eye-patch and allowing his other eye to see. With that, he stepped out of the bathroom and faced Coulson. The agent only raised an eyebrow at the addition of the mask, but he said nothing.

"I'm ready," said Ken.


	2. First Meetings

Please Review! I love reviews, I really do. Even if it's a small thing.

...

Ken stepped out of the car and to the small quinjet with Coulson. The entire ride had been silent, after Coulson had explained the mission to find a man named Loki, who was apparently an alien, and a square blue object called the Tesseract, which was an unlimited energy source. Ken wondered for a moment if either were edible, but ended up saying nothing. For the rest of the ride, he wasn't very sure of what to talk about and Coulson had seemed content with the silence. As they boarded the quinjet, though, there was already a blond haired man sitting there waiting. He was dressed in a brown leather jacket and loose jeans, but in the closed environment that the man had been sitting, even Ken could smell that the man was strong. He absently rolled his tongue in his mouth, more muscle was healthier and he was fond of the texture, but it didn't taste quite as good as younger, softer flesh.

The man glanced up at Ken, and his blue eyes widened with surprise at his appearance.

"Ken Kaneki, this is Steve Rogers, Captain America. Steve, this is Ken Kaneki," Coulson said, introducing the two.

"Bit young, isn't he?" Steve asked.

"He's older than you were," Coulson replied. Steve simply nodded, glancing over at Ken, his eyes lingering on the mask.

"I want both of you to take a look at this, these are going to be your teammates for this mission," Coulson said, pulling a clear glass screen out of his briefcase and handing it to Steve. Ken and Steve watched silently as it went through and gave a quick description and picture, along with a couple of video clips, of each of their teammates. When it got to Ken, though, there was a distant picture, and a short description of his observed psychological profile and strengths. Ken noted with interest that it never once mentioned that he ate people. Was SHIELD trying to keep that hidden?

"So, this Doctor Banner was trying to replicate the serum that was used on me?" Steve asked, as he watched a short video of the Hulk smashing things. Ken couldn't help but feel a connection, since the Hulk couldn't really control himself when he got angry. Ken just couldn't control himself when he got was probably a good thing he ate just the night before.

"A lot of people were. You were the world's first superhero. Banner thought gamma radiation might hold the key to unlocking Erskine's original formula," Coulson replied.

"Didn't really go his way, did it?" Steve said absently, watching the beast pick up a truck and throw it.

"Not so much. When he's not that thing though, the guy's like a Stephen Hawking," Coulson explained, pausing for a moment at Steve's confused glance. "He's like a smart person. I gotta say, it's an honor to meet you, officially. I sort of met you, I mean, I watched you while you were sleeping. I mean, I was... I was present while you were unconscious from the ice. You know, it's really, it's just a... just a huge honor to have you on board," Coulson said, stumbling over himself a bit. Ken glanced over at the Captain. He was pretty sure he had heard of Captain America once or twice since being here, but was the guy really that famous? He had seen the Captain's profile when they were looking through them, so he knew he had been frozen and thought dead for a long time, but still.

"Well, I hope I'm the man for the job," Steve replied, glancing out the window to see the water they were flying over.

"Oh, you are. Absolutely. Uh... we've made some modifications to the uniform. I had a little design input," Coulson said, smiling at the captain.

"The uniform? Aren't the stars and stripes a little... old fashioned?" Steve asked, looked pointedly at the black uniform Coulson was wearing, and the black sweater and pants Ken had put on.

"With everything that's happening, the things that are about to come to light, people might just need a little old fashioned," Coulson said sadly. Ken glanced at Steve, to see him looking pensively at Coulson. Old-fashioned, huh? It wasn't much longer before the quinjet finally landed on the base, an enormous ship in the middle of the ocean. As the ramp lowered, Steve and Ken followed Coulson out onto the landing pad, where a beautiful red-haired woman was waiting for them.

"Agent Romanoff, this is Captain Rogers and Mr. Kaneki. Boys, this is Agent Natasha Romanoff," Coulson introduced.

"Ma'am," Steve said, with an incline of his head. Ken just nodded.

"Hello," She responded, before turning to Coulson, "They need you on the bridge. Face time."

"Alright, I'll see you there," He said, before waving at the three as he walked away, leaving Ken and Steve with Natasha. She looked at both contemplatively.

"There was quite the buzz around here, finding you in the ice. I thought Coulson was gonna swoon. Did he ask you to sign his Captain America trading cards yet?" She asked, looking at the Captain.

"Trading cards?" Steve asked, bewildered.

"They're vintage, he's very proud," she explained, before turning to look at Ken, "And you, no one quite knew what to do with you. The cannibal that never kills."

"What? Cannibal?" Steve asked, staring at Ken. Ken shrugged, like he cared about what they thought of him. Perhaps in a past life, before he had accepted his nature, he might have argued that it wasn't his fault and that he couldn't help it, but the past didn't change the present. And, since he was half human, he was technically a cannibal. He hadn't killed since getting here, but that was because he hadn't done anything that necessitated killing. If these people thought that meant he wouldn't kill in the future, well, that was up in the air. He wouldn't for food, but for defensive purposes? He would slaughter the world. There was a bit of an awkward silence as Ken kept quiet, not rising to the potential argument, and Steve silently watched him with a thinking face. There were some shouts on deck, and suddenly Steve's attention was grabbed by another guest on the deck.

"Dr. Banner!," he called, walking up to the man standing near the edge. The two began talking for a moment, while Natasha spoke with another Agent. A minute later, she turned to Ken.

"You might want to get inside, we're going up and the winds could knock you straight off," she said, "Just ask any agent for directions to the bridge." Ken nodded his thanks and walked over the the main door while Natasha went towards the two men still near the edge. It took him a couple minutes to find the place, but when he did, he was amazed by the size of the room and the technology. Fury and another woman were barking orders left and right as the ship lifted out of the water and into the air. He was watching with quiet shock. Furthermore, he listed as they talked about finding Loki and the Tesseract, sweeping every camera on the planet? His own world had nothing like this. It was no wonder he had been discovered. After a few minutes, Dr. Banner was escorted out by Natasha and Fury stepped over next to where Ken was silently watching out the window.

"You know, you don't need to wear that mask in here, we are your allies," Fury said carefully. Ken's eyes narrowed.

"But will you always be?" He asked quietly.

"So long as you do not kill any humans, yes, we will leave you be. We will never support you, but we won't stop you," Fury said carefully. Ken said nothing. "Kaneki, just remember that these people are going to be your teammates for the duration of the mission, not your enemies. There is no point in trying to maintain this facade of apathy, you have people here who could become good friends if you would allow them to," Fury said.

"How do you know it's a facade?" Ken asked gently.

"Because I know you care about people. You can pretend otherwise to others and to yourself, but I know the truth. You would have killed if you didn't, but instead you go out of your way to search for those already dead, who didn't care about their own lives and who didn't have anyone to care for them. In a way, you do your own sending off ritual, giving their death meaning meaning. Now, I do not agree with your actions, and do not take this as approval, but I do appreciate the effort you have gone to in order to hurt the fewest people possible. That tells me exactly how much you care," said Fury.

"It only indicates that I care when it comes to my own selfish desires," Ken said quietly. Before Fury could respond, however, one of the Agents called out.

"We got a hit! 67% match! Wait, cross-match, 79%. The location is Stuttgart, Germany," The agent said.

"He's not exactly hiding," muttered the man next to him.

"Captain! Kaneki! You're up!" Fury said, turning to go back to his main spot. Steve nodded and immediately followed Coulson out. "Oh, and Kaneki, we have a spare uniform that might suite you a bit better. It was modified slightly based on your noted preferred style of casual wear," Fury said, gesturing to another Agent to lead him across the ship. In the room, he found a black outfit similar to the ones the Agents had been wearing, but it was a bit looser in the top half and had a hood attached to it. Furthermore, there were some thin white lines on the side and front, probably to distinguish him from the actual SHIELD agents. As he felt the cloth, though, he realized that it wasn't leather. He wasn't sure what it was, but it was actually much more flexible than leather, yet just as difficult to tear through. He did look absently at the back of the suit with a frown, if he had to pull his kakuja out, it would shred the back of the suit. Of course, it would do that for pretty much anything he wore, another reason why he hadn't used it much since being here, but it seemed like a shame on such a good uniform. Maybe after this mission he would ask for a modification. He gently put on the uniform and frowned when he saw the guns in the locker as well. He picked up the pistol and eyed it. He wouldn't be against using one, but he never had before and this probably wasn't the time to start learning. After going through the rest of the things in the locker and deciding he didn't recognize any of the tools or how to use them, he threw his hands up in the air and walked out of the room without any of the offered weapons.

The ride to Stuttgart was fast, Natasha pushing the vehicle as quickly as it could go, yet they were almost too late. Just as they were flying over town and saw Loki, he was lowering his spear and shouting something. Steve acted before Ken did, jumping down and hiding behind his shield to reflect the blast back at Loki. The people immediately stood up and began screaming and running from the scene. Ken jumped down just behind the Captain.

"You know, the last time I was in Germany and saw a man standing above everyone else, we ended up disagreeing," Captain America said, walking forward with confidence.

"The soldier," Loki snarled, before his face twisted into a smirk, "The man out of time."

"I'm not the one who's out of time," Steve replied calmly. Ken sniffed the air absently. Dear god, what was that scent? It was extraordinarily foreign, not good nor bad, but so different from anything else. It smelled...like ice cream. Ken couldn't remember ever smelling ice cream before, did it even have a scent? He wasn't sure, but it was the only thing he could compare it to. Like ice cream, or a frozen cake. It tickled the nose with a subtle flavor and a chilly atmosphere, yet was strong enough to reach him. He had known that Loki was an alien, but now he was really curious for what the man would taste like. He could probably get away with a couple bites.

"Loki, drop the weapon and stand down," Natasha ordered firmly from the quinjet. Loki's response was to chuckle and throw a blue ray in her direction, which Steve responded to by throwing his shield at the alien. Loki turned his head slightly so the shield bounced off his helmet, but Steve followed up by diving straight into combat with the man, using his shield to counteract Loki's spear. However, after a moment, Loki managed to get his spear around the shield and hit the Captain across the courtyard. Ken used this moment to leap onto Loki's back, mask unzipped, but the moment he did he realized he would have to rid the other man of his armor. His teeth wouldn't break through this, he could already tell from the way it resisted his hands trying to crush it. He didn't get another moment to think, though, before he was thrown off. Loki tried to spear him, but had to use the spear to block the shield thrown at him by the super soldier instead.

The shield was knocked away, and Steve again engaged in a fight with Loki, though this time he was without his weapon. Ken grabbed the shield and threw it. His aim was a bit off, but it distracted Loki enough for Steve to grab it in the air and bring it around the try and hit Loki once more. The self-proclaimed god used his spear to knock out Steve's feet from under him, sending the man down to his knees. Loki smirked as he held the point of the spear to the man's head, but before he could say anything, Ken tackled him from the side, ripping off his helmet and shoving him to the ground in a single move. However, he was quickly thrown off by Loki's surprising strength. It didn't matter much though, he had gotten a taste of the man. He grinned broadly, a chunk of the man's ear rolled around in his mouth and Loki held a hand up to the side of his head, stemming the blood flow with fury on his face.

"How dare you!" He shouted, sending a blue blast at Kaneki, who dived the side to avoid it. Suddenly, rock music began to play across the area as a golden blast knocked Loki off his feet. Ironman, better known as Tony Stark, landed in the middle of the pavement, both hands pointed at Loki. "Make a move, Reindeer games," he said, giving both Ken and Steve a chance to breath and come to stand net to him. Some of Loki's blood still dripped from Ken's mouth, astonishingly cold. In fact, it felt like the inside of his mouth was freezing slightly, but by rubbing his tongue over his lips to get the blood, the sensation faded. Loki looked carefully at all of them, before his armor faded off and he held his hands up in surrender.

"Good move," Tony said, lowering his own hands, which Kaneki thought was stupid. If this guy could materialize his armor and weapons, then he was always armed, like a ghoul.

"Mr. Stark," Steve said in greeting.

"Captain. Hannibal." Stark responded, greeting them both. Ken nodded, his mouth still tingling, and his body having the rush of energy that came from eating a good meal. He also wondered if this was at all similar to the rush Touka had experienced after he had allowed her to eat some of him. However, despite the energy that filled his system, his head was hurting rather nastily.

"Alright, lets load him up," Stark said, grabbing Loki and pulling him towards the lowered quinjet ramp. After boarding, Ken sat down and held his head in his hands, rubbing circles on his temple.

"Hey, you alright?" Steve asked.

"Yeah, brain freeze," Ken replied. Because it was. He recognized the weird painful sensation now.

"How'd you get brain freeze?" Steve asked, bewildered. Ken shrugged and gestured at Loki, who was looking at him now with a strange mixture of fascination and hate. Stark let out a rough laugh.

"Ha! Did he really take a chunk out of you, Loki?" He asked with glee. Loki's lips twisted into a mild snarl as he glared at Stark, but the thin layer of blood coming from his ear was clearly visible. Ken had only taken a small piece of it, he hadn't had the time to grab the whole thing. Now, he wondered if it was safe to do so. Sure, Loki tasted good and gave him a rush of energy, but if he had this bad of a brain freeze from biting that tiny part of him, what about a larger chunk? Absently, he cracked one of his fingers.

The sharp sting of pain made him look down and realize what he had done. He hadn't cracked his finger like that in over a year. His blood was boiling, and he had only been in a small fight. An old anger and fire was sparking to life in his gut, and he thought he could faintly hear a certain woman laughing. When was the last time he ate? It had only been a couple of nights ago, yet he felt a craving anyway. He forced it down, he was not Rize; he was not the Binge Eater who gorged herself practically every week. The brain freeze seemed to shoot up and down his spine, and he started to feel like he had a stomach ache. It seemed like eating Loki gave him a lot of immediate energy, but his body didn't like it very much some time after the fact. A woman sat next to Loki, her purple hair draping peacefully over her and her loving eyes resting on his face. One of her hands rose up to caress him.

"Oh Kaneki, could you just imagine how much power you would have after eating him? Sure, he might be cold, but cold won't kill you, you know that already," she said lightly. She shifted, standing up and moving to sit next to Kaneki, who continued to stubbornly look forward. "Or what about some of the other people? The other Avengers? I bet you could get a real rush from Steve. Mm, what a guy, right?" She said, gently setting one hand on Ken's shoulder and leaning into him. "Come on, Kaneki, I thought you had accepted me."

'_I have, but I will not hurt those I value._' He thought.

"Oh, so you value these men already? You hardly know them, I bet both will turn their back once they learn your true nature," she said. And she was right, Ken knew. Stark joked about Ken being a cannibal, and Steve had heard, but neither seemed to really grasp it, like it was a distant thing, or a silly rumor. Furthermore, no one on this world had seen him fight beyond his sparring matches down at a local gym, they hadn't seen how he was willing to tear someone apart. Something in him had been broken by his torture, he knew, because he also knew that he would be perfectly willing to rip apart opponents, given the opportunity. And yet, he couldn't quite bring himself to care about the change. He was a ghoul, and that was the way it was.

A sudden crashing sound jolted him out of his thoughts as the quinjet shuddered from an impact. Ken blinked, bringing himself back into focus. At some point, both Tony and Steve had moved over to the front of the aircraft, but Loki had remained sitting where he was, observing Ken with a calculating gaze, though his face seemed a bit worried. A moment later, the back of the quinjet was ripped open, and another man stepped in, grabbed Loki, and stepped out, falling to the ground.

"And now there's that guy," Tony said with a groan, lowering his mask over his face.

"A friendly?" Steve asked.

"Doesn't matter. Whether he frees or kills Loki, we lose the Tesseract," Tony replied, stepping over to the edge of the ship. Steve's eyes widened when he realized what Tony was going to do. "Stark, we need a plan of attack!" He shouted.

"I have a plan. Attack," Tony said before leaping out. Steve cursed and grabbed a parachute, before leaping out to follow Ironman. Ken stood up and stood at the edge, wondering if he should bother with a parachute. In the end though, he decided not to risk it and grabbed one.

"I wouldn't do that if I were you. These guys are way above your level, practically gods," Natasha said, seeing Ken put on the parachute. He pulled a little on the tab, not quite sure how to use it, but he would figure it out. Probably.

"Then I will challenge the gods," Ken replied quietly, before leaping out to follow the other two. He could see the controlled flight of Ironman through the dark, so he tried to angle himself towards that. Below him, he could see Steve's parachute hitting the trees a little ways away from the flashes of golden light. He frowned, where was Loki? Ken pulled on the tabs of his parachute when he thought he was at a good height, but it was a bit too low and as he hit the ground in a clearing, he felt the bones in his legs snap. He rolled forward to avoid more injuries, but he still ended up scraping his uniform rather badly.

"Well, I must say, that was a terrible landing," A voice drawled. Ken sat up to see Loki looking down at him with an eyebrow raised. In response, Ken lifted both his broken legs into the air, and they twisted around until they were straight once more. He then leaped up off the ground in a single casual movement.

"I don't need to be good at landings," Ken said.

"I can tell," Loki replied, looking him over in interest, "If I may ask, what are you? Clearly not human, no human could have hurt me the way you did." Ken paused, but kept silent. He ignored the question.

"Come on, we're heading over to the others. If you try to escape, I will restrain you," he said calmly. Loki looked amused, as if Ken was saying something funny, but he simply gestured instead.

"Lead the way, my friend," He said. Ken glanced at him but said nothing, and simply began walking down the side of the cliff to where the others were down below. The third man, the one Ken didn't know but suspected was Thor, had an astonishingly strong scent, rather the opposite of Loki. Whereas Loki's was soft and cold, like ice cream or cake, Thor smelled warm and spicy, like strong curry or Mexican food. Again, though, no more or less delicious than those around him, just a very different flavor. Ken wondered why these beings smelled edible to him, given that Ghouls had always had to eat humans to live. He couldn't eat cows or other animals, so what made the aliens different?

"You want me to put the hammer down?!" Thor shouted, just as they approached the clearing. Ken dropped down low when he saw the hammer strike the shield, digging his feet and hands into the ground as the wave of energy passed him. Loki looked unaffected, and Ken wondered how much of what he said and did was an act. With a groan, the three heroes who had been closer to the epicenter of the blast began to get up.

"Are we done here?" Steve asked with exasperation, looking at the other two.

"Yeah, yeah, we're done," Tony replied casually. Thor looked between the two, then back at his brother standing on the edge of the clearing. He didn't even glance at Ken, who was standing back up.

"Alright Natasha, we're coming back up," Tony said out loud. Ken assumed that it was transmitted to her, as the quinjet lowered itself towards the clearing, the back of it still torn open. Thor grabbed Loki roughly and jumped into the back, nearly lowering the ship a few feet with a loud thud.

"You two flightless bird, grab on," Tony said. Steve hesitated for a moment before gripping Steve's shoulder tightly, while Ken hung off Tony's back. Ironman then quickly ascended, before dropping into the ship. In the light of the ship, Thor finally noticed the thin blood trail going down the side of Loki's face to his jaw.

"Who did that?" He asked, gesturing. It was impossible to tell if he was upset or not, as he was not in a good mood in general. Loki just pointed at Ken, and Thor looked over at him critically.

"How?" He asked.

"He bit me," Loki said, a bit indignant. Thor processed this slowly, but once he did, his eyes narrowed and he looked a bit confused.

"But then, he should be dead," Thor finally said.

"I know," Loki replied, grinning. Thor looked at Ken carefully, before taking a seat across from Loki and waiting out the ride.

"Dead?" Steve asked, but neither Thor nor Loki responded. The ride was quiet for the rest of the flight to the helicarrier. Upon landing, several agents escorted Loki off the ship while the group headed for a briefing room to meet up with Bruce. Once there, they listened to the exchange between Loki and Fury, each glancing at each other and nervously glancing at Bruce when it was brought up that the cage was meant for him. However, Bruce just shrugged it off.

"He really grows on you, doesn't he?" said Bruce.

"Loki's going to drag this out. So, Thor, what's his play?" Steve asked, turning to the Asgardian.

"He has an army called the Chitauri. They're not of Asgard or any world known. He means to lead them against your people. They will win him the earth. In return, I suspect, for the Tesseract," Thor explained.

"An army? From outer space?" Steve asked, trying to wrap his head around the idea. Of course, 70 years prior, it would have been a distant science fiction idea, not a legitimate possibility. Ken himself was having a hard time processing it all. Aliens? No one would have believed it back home.

"So he's building another portal, that's what he needs Erik Selvig for," Bruce said, thinking to himself.

"Selvig?" Thor asked sharply.

"He's an astrophysicist," Banner explained.

"He's a friend," countered Thor.

"Loki has him under some kind of spell, along with one of ours," Natasha interjected.

"I want to know why Loki let us capture him," Ken said, thinking about how easily Loki followed him. "He had the chance to escape when you guys were fighting, why didn't he? He's not leading anyone from here."

"I don't think we should be focusing on Loki. That guy's brain is a bag full of cats, you could smell crazy on him," said Bruce carefully.

"Have care how you speak. Loki is beyond reason, but he is of Asgard, and he's my brother," Thor said carefully.

"He killed eighty people in two days," Natasha replied, raising an eyebrow.

"He's adopted," Thor defended.

"The point is that I think we should focus on the mechanics. Iridium, what did they need the Iridium for?" Bruce cut in.

"It's a stabilizing agent," Tony's voice said, cutting over them and echoing around the room. He handed something to Coulson with a few words, before speaking up to them again. "Means the portal won't collapse on itself, like it did at SHIELD." Tony glanced over at Thor, "No hard feelings, Point Break. You've got a mean swing," he said, before continuing with his previous tangent, "Also, it means the portal can open as wide, and stay open as long, as Loki wants." Tony stepped up to the main command spot for controlling the ship, looking around.

"Uh, raise the mid-mast, ship the top sails. That man is playing GALAGA! Thought we wouldn't notice. But we did." Ken leaned forward slightly in his seat to see the agent quickly click out of the game. Meanwhile, Tony covered one eye as he looked over the monitors. "How does Fury see these?" He asked, gesturing to the monitors on his blind side.

"He turns," deadpanned Agent Hill (as Ken had learned her name was).

"Sounds exhausting. The rest of the raw materials, Agent Barton can get his hands on pretty easily. Only major component he still needs is a power source. A high energy density, something to kick start the cube," Tony explained, turning back to the table.

"When did you become an expert in thermonuclear astrophysics?" Hill asked, raising an eyebrow.

"Last night. The packet, Selvig's notes, the Extraction Theory papers. Am I the only one who did the reading?" Tony asked in a mocking voice.

"Does Loki need any particular kind of power source?" Steve asked.

"He needs to heat the cube to a hundred and twenty million Kelvin just to break through the Coulomb barrier," Bruce said, thinking to himself.

"Unless, Selvig has figured out how to stabilize the quantum tunneling effect," Tony countered. Bruce blinked, as his eyebrows came together in a concerned look.

"Well, if he could do that he could achieve Heavy Ion Fusion at any reactor on the planet," Bruce said.

"Finally, someone who speaks English," said Tony with relief.

"Is that what just happened?" Steve asked quietly as Tony and Bruce shook hands.

"It's good to meet you, Dr. Banner. Your work on anti-electron collisions is unparalleled. And I'm a huge fan of the way you lose control and turn into an enormous green rage monster," Tony said. Ken blinked, wondering if this was why Tony didn't really have any problems with himself.

"Uh, thanks," Bruce said in response.

"Dr. Banner is only here to track the cube. I was hoping you might join him," Director Fury said, striding into the room.

"Let's start with that stick of his. It may be magical, but it works an awful lot like a HYDRA weapon," Steve said, trying to contribute.

"I don't know about that, but it is powered by the cube. And I'd like to know how Loki used it to turn two of the sharpest men I know into his personal flying monkeys," said Fury.

"Monkeys? I do not understand," Thor said, looking confused.

"I do!" Steve said, sitting up and grinning. He faltered a moment under the glances of the others in the room, "I understood that reference." Tony rolled his eyes.

"What I want to know is how you managed to survive biting Loki's ear," Thor said, looking at Ken seriously, who shrugged, not really seeing the big deal.

"I just bit a part of it off, what is so difficult about that?" He asked. Steve looked a little uncomfortable, probably because biting was considered very underhanded in a fight.

"Though Loki's body has been heavily influenced by the magic of my father and Asgard, he still has the blood of Frost Giants running in his veins and direct contact with it for a human should have frozen you solid," Thor explained. Huh, maybe that was why he had a killer brain freeze earlier.

"I have a strong healing factor," Ken replied, shrugging, "maybe that's why?" He wasn't going to explain that healing didn't help much when you were frozen, it would just keep you alive. He also wasn't going to explain that he wasn't quite human, and that his ghoulish constitution was probably why he hadn't been frozen solid. Thor looked at him with skepticism, along with Fury and Natasha, Ken noticed. Steve seemed to accept the explanation, and Bruce just shrugged, probably not caring. However, Tony spoke up.

"Bullshit, an advanced healing factor doesn't work like that," he said. Ken looked at them all blankly.

"Well, I don't have any other explanation," he said. Tony examined Ken carefully looking thoughtful, before he suddenly turned to Bruce and smiled.

"Hey, want to go play?" He asked. Bruce looked a bit startled at the change of topic.

"Alright," he said hesitantly, following Tony out and to the lab. The rest of the group all looked at each other and slowly broke away, leaving just Ken and Thor at the table to talk. And one other person. A girl with long purple hair, standing behind Thor, running her fingers through his hair, though it didn't move.

"Hm, not as tender as I would like," she said, running one of her hands over the Asgardian's muscular shoulders, "but definitely a new and unique flavor. I think it's worth trying, don't you?" She asked, looking over at Ken. Ken decided to ignore her. He did not need hunger hallucinations right now, especially not on a ship full of humans. Why was he even having them? He had recently eaten, yet his stomach felt strangely empty. He didn't recall expending a lot of energy, why was he already starting to suffer hunger pains? Rize vanished.

"Hm, eating Loki should have frozen you. Perhaps it did, on the inside. Your body would have shed and digested the dead parts, then regrown them. You did expend energy, a lot more than you thought, in that fight. Why not refuel? This man here should do the job fantastically, the energy boost of Loki, but minus the pesky Frost Giant blood," Rize said, wrapping her arms around Ken from behind. One of her hands came up to gently brush some of his hair out of his face. Ken stood up sharply, dissipating the hallucination as he shook his head to clear it.

"I'll be in my room," he said quickly, before leaving to walk down the hall. He tried not to notice how sensitive he was to the scent of each person he passed. Or how it felt like Rize was trailing just behind him.


	3. Shit Hits The Fan

Please review!

…

_Ken Kaneki held his stomach in pain, his nose flaring with the scent of thousands of humans in the nearby vicinity. He knew he could not walk among them right now, not unless he wanted to cause an incident. He gripped the mask in his other hand tightly, having managed to find someone who could make something similar to what he'd had at home. Of course, there was a communication problem._

_He knew English, but in that way that all foreign language classes teach you: static selective sentences and conversations. He didn't know the ebb and flow between native speakers, the change in cadence, and the different words that could mean the same things. English had so many synonyms! Despite a casual 6 years of English classes, he was lost at first and really only able to communicate simply._

_Luckily, after his immersive exposure, he was starting to adapt and his years of lessons were slowly kicking in, though he was still getting used to being called by his first name. He'd been able to find someone who could make a mask, though the price was exorbitant, and he finally remembered that he needed money. Of course, it hadn't occurred to him since he could do without it mostly. He didn't need to buy his food, and there was nothing frightening about living on the street when he was one of the scariest things there._

_Ken looked up at the bridge over him with blank eyes; it was his savior. He had managed to find it by asking about local ghost stories and playing the over eager foreign teenager. It was a common suicide spot, though not common enough to have people jumping off every month. He held his stomach as it growled. He'd waited too long to eat, the other spots he could check were too close to the city and the living areas of other people. He might be tempted to grab one of them._

_Suddenly, he heard a sound up on the bridge. Someone was up there, but they weren't alone. Curious, despite his hunger, he climbed up the side of the bridge instead of waiting for someone to jump. After making sure his hood was pulled up over his wig and mask, he glanced carefully over the top of the bridge. A man and a woman were fighting, if it could be called that. The woman looked beat up, and was fighting against the man with wild uncontrolled movements. Clearly, she'd never been trained, though she was fit judging by her muscles and scent. The man, on the other hand, looked angry. He was trying to kill her, Ken realized absently, as he punched her._

_There was a moment, he would admit, where he considered just letting the man do so. He knew if he stepped in, he would likely end up killing the man, and really, what gave him the right to decide who lived and who died? But when the man shoved her against the metal railing of the bridge and she cried out in pain, he made a decision. He might not be able to get back home for a while, and he might be a ghoul, but he couldn't kill his human heart. He couldn't stand to see someone in pain right in front of him._

_Ken flipped up over the edge of the bridge and ran to the man, punching him in the jaw to knock him away from the woman. He glanced down at her, but didn't speak. If she ever showed up at the coffee shop where he worked, he didn't want her to identify him. However, it seemed like she understood why he was there anyway. She took his offered hand, either not noticing the way his grip tightened when he smelled her blood, or choosing to ignore it. She suddenly wrapped her arms around him, crying._

"_Thank you," she said, sobbing lightly. Ken had completely frozen. If his eye wasn't black before, it was now. He scent filled his nose, and it was astonishingly strawberry. He hated it. It was fake, wafting off of the woman's long red hair. She clearly used heavily scented shampoo. In fact, the scent was so strong that it perfectly covered her natural scent. She had to scrub fervently and pay careful attention to her hygiene to accomplish that. It was odd enough to distract him from his hunger, and from the fact that a human was right in front of him._

"_You fucker..." the man from before said, picking himself up off the ground. His voice slurred, and he was clearly heavily drunk. "She said...she would...she said...but then she backed out! She can't just change her mind, give her back!"_

"_No! I change my mind! I don't want anything to do with you!" The woman replied back, ducking behind Kaneki. _

"_You bitch!" The man yelled, running towards the two of them. Ken grabbed the woman and jumped off the bridge, holding her carefully despite her sudden scream of surprise. The fall from the bridge to the ground would normally kill a person, but that was only if you jumped from the center. Being closer to the edge, the distance was halved, and Ken was able to bend his knees when he landed to lessen the force on his passenger, so she was fine. He set her down gently._

"_Thank you," she said gratefully. He nodded and stepped back. She still smelled weird, but his proximity to her was really starting to bother him. He could already see Rize standing behind the woman, running her fingers through the woman's wavy red hair and her other hand over the woman's toned arms. He shook himself._

"_My name is Natalie Shostakova, what's yours?" She asked. Ken just shook his head and stepped back again._

"_Oh, um, well, I was in town with the Russian ballet, so if you want to come and see us, I'll give you a ticket as thanks," she said._

"_Go," Ken rasped. His voice was strained, struggling with holding himself back. The world seemed focused entirely on her, and he needed her to leave. She faltered and looked at him with concern._

"_Are you alright?" She asked, stepping closer to him. He had to leave, he had to get out of here, but his legs weren't listening to him. Instead, Rize beckoned him closer to the woman. He felt his mouth starting to water a bit with the thought of eating._

"_Go," he said again, struggling against himself. Natalie paused, watching him with a coldly calculating gaze that seemed misplaced, given she had been crying only a moment ago. However, the concern came back too quickly for Ken to be sure of what he saw._

"_I'll get help," she said finally, before turning and running up the path. Kaneki looked after her, shoving down the temporary feeling of longing, of wanting to chase her down like prey and tear the flesh from her bones. He was shocked out of his thoughts by a sudden crack, like a bullet being shot. A moment later, a body was falling over the edge of the bridge, bleeding._

_He casually stepped down towards the thin stream the body had fallen into and plucked him out of the water with one hand. It was the man who had been pushing around the Russian woman only a few minutes beforehand. He had been shot, but by who? Ken couldn't bring himself to care, he was a bit too ravenous._

_He dragged the body under the bridge in the hopes of avoiding any possible onlookers, unzipped his mask, and began eating. He wouldn't notice the small silver attachment on the back of his hoodie until it fell off in the wash, when he would toss it without giving it much thought. He did notice the odd businessman who showed up the next day at his work, ordered a single coffee, and stayed for exactly two hours. The man would then show up every other day at various times, and would sit at all different spots, but he would always order the same thing and would always stay for two hours._

_He also noticed the tabloids in the newspaper had a picture of the man currently residing in his over-sized freezer. His official cause of death was by gunshot at the hands of a cop, after escaping prison. He had on record multiple counts of sexual assault. Ken thought it was a bit odd, as he didn't recall seeing or smelling any police anywhere near the bridge that night, but the man had been shot by somebody._

_A few days after the incident, Natalie showed up at the coffee shop with the blond businessman. It seemed like they were on a date, but Ken couldn't quite shake the feeling they were watching him, like they knew who he was. Natalie left together with the Russian ballet group, and the man stopped coming a few days after._

…

"Bruce, what do you know about our cannibalistic friend?" Tony asked, implementing the search algorithm on the computer in front of him.

"You know, it's not very nice of you to call him that," Banner replied carefully, watching the levels of gamma radiation coming off the spear.

"What, a cannibal? He is. Or did you not know?" Tony asked, moving something aside on one of the screens. He grabbed it and moved it over towards Banner. "JARVIS, bring up the files on Kaneki."

"If I must," a voice said. Banner paused.

"Did you infect the SHIELD mainframe with JARVIS?" He asked.

"Yup," Tony replied. "It's really quite useful to have an eye in SHIELD. 'Subject 2031: Ken Kaneki, Codename: Cannibal.' Cannibalism is actually pretty rare, so he gets an extremely unoriginal nickname. 'First spotted on November 18th, 2011 by satellite dragging a dead body out from a river and eating it. Response #1: anonymous tip given to the local police. Follow-up: The police who investigated found nothing, and the Cannibal did not show again.'"

"Why are you reading me this?" Banner asked.

"Because I want you to know that there is someone else on this team who understands you," said Tony.

"I don't follow," replied Banner. Tony swept his finger across the screen and began to read again.

"Cannibal report # 8. After his successful escapes from the police, who are beginning to think that the tips belong to a prankster, the subject has been cleared for personal response from SHIELD. To date, we have captured his image or movements on camera 6 times, five times he has been spotted eating suicide victims and once he ran into a fire and helped get people out, but the subject's identity is still unknown. Agent Romanoff will confront him, and Agent Barton will follow up. The setting is intended to be Sunset Bridge, a possible location for codename: Cannibal."

"I still don't see what this has to do with me," Banner said, raising an eyebrow.

"Shush," replied Tony. "It's in here somewhere. 'Cannibal report #9. Agent Romanoff's mission was a success. She placed a tracker on codename: Cannibal's jacket, and Agent Barton was able to follow the tracker to uncover the subject's home and identification. Subject has been identified as Ken Kaneki, further investigation reveals faked papers.

A psychological profile compiled by Agent Romanoff based on their first interaction indicates the possibility that Kaneki cannot control his eating habits. He urged her to run, and was visibly holding himself back and away from her, as if afraid that he would hurt her. Behavior also indicates a high value placed on human life.

Cannibal report #10. Further investigation has shown that Kaneki does not eat anything except for the suicide victims roughly each month."

"Stop. Just, stop," Banner said, looking at Stark tiredly.

"The point I'm trying to make, is that according to SHIELD, he's in the same boat as you. He can't be who he wants to because he is only eats people. Not eating for a month and then eating a person? You can't tell me that it's his life's choices that allow his body to do that without dying," replied Stark. Banner sighed.

"It may be a side effect of his mutation, whatever it is that allows him to have incredible strength and durability," said Bruce.

"That's the spirit!" said Tony cheerfully. "No better way to pass the time than to gossip about someone behind their back."

"Is that so?" A third voice cut in. Tony glanced over his shoulder and waved off the speaker casually.

"Hello Captain Rogers," Bruce greeted amicably.

"I think that you need to get back to work," Steve said stubbornly. Tony snorted and walked around the table.

"We are. The formula is locked and sweeping. As soon as we get a match, we'll know about it," he said, gesturing to the computers around them. "I wonder, Captain, did you know that one of your teammates is a cannibal?" Steve looked at Tony a bit confused.

"I recall you calling Kaneki that, I thought it was a reference to his fighting style and jaw strength," Steve said.

"It is. Sorta. Only, he actually is a cannibal. He eats people in his free time," Tony said.

"That's not funny," Steve replied sternly.

"I'm not trying to be funny. If I was, you would be on the floor right now, dying of laughter. I was honestly wondering if you knew," Tony replied lightly.

"Is everything a joke to you?!" Steve asked sternly.

"Funny things are."

"You're telling me that one of our teammates is a cannibal! And you're just okay with that?!" Steve asked. Tony shrugged.

"It's just one of the many secrets on this ship that I am privy to," he replied.

"You've been hacking the ship?" Steve asked.

"Yup. I want to know all of Fury's little secrets. You'd be surprised, Captain, Kaneki is just one," said Tony.

"What do you mean?" asked Steve, his curiosity getting the better of him.

"Why did Fury call us now? Why not earlier? What isn't he telling us?" asked Tony, popping a chip into his mouth. He held out the bag to Steve. "Want one?"

"You think Fury's hiding something? Something bigger than Kaneki?" Steve asked, ignoring the offered bag. Tony took it back and began to walk towards Bruce.

"I think Fury brought in Kaneki to be the mystery. To sate our curiosity and keep us from looking further by giving us this strange new teammate. But, with that man, one must look underneath the underneath. Captain, he's not just a spy, he's the spy. His secrets have secrets," Tony explained. "Do you want one?" He asked, holding the bag out to Bruce, who took one after a moment of hesitation.

"Dr. Banner, do you agree with Stark?" Steve asked. Bruce hesitated for a moment before speaking.

"'A warm light for all mankind', Loki's jab at Fury about the cube," Bruce started, "I think it was meant for you." he said, nodding at Tony. Tony nodded, as he and Bruce continued to explain their theories to Steve.

…

Ken Kaneki sat in his room, the blinds open to allow him to feel the sunlight on his face. His mask sat on the bed next to him, and he had his eyes closed, trying to keep his thoughts focused on anything besides his hunger.

"791...784...777...770..." His nose twitched as he smelled something both odd and familiar. It was Captain America, and something else. He stood up, strapped on his mask, and opened his door to see Captain America carrying an enormous gun that looked strangely similar to the spear in it's style. It released a scent of it's own, something scintillating, like everything he ever wanted. It smelled like his mother's cooking, like the lilies that had been in their house, and, strangely, like coffee and Anteiku. However, there was also something under it, a faint scent of rotten eggs.

"Kaneki," Captain America greeted. Ken nodded to him, eying the weapon curiously. There was a pause in the conversation, and Ken glanced up at Captain Rogers' face to see him looking at him with an odd look on his face.

"What?" Kaneki asked. Steve collected himself and pushed past Kaneki.

"Nothing," he replied, before continuing his walk down the hall. Kaneki sniffed the air and realized that the Avengers all seemed to be converging in the same general direction. He followed behind the Captain, who seemed more tense than the last time they had spoken. Ken wondered why.

"No ones around now, we could have a couple bites," Rize said, walking alongside Steve casually. Ken stiffened and froze where he was, not following the Captain anymore as he continued to meet up with the rest of the group. No, it was better that he not be in a crowded room right now. He turned on the balls of his feet and began to walk back towards his own room. He was hungry enough to hallucinate, but he was still in control. He just needed to find some food soon, in the next couple days, or he would be in more serious trouble.

As he went back towards his room, however, his steps were heavy. Suddenly, he was thrown to the side as the ship rocked and alarms began blaring. After a moment he stood up and glanced around, agents were running past him arming themselves. He didn't see any damage, but there was no way that was good. He sniffed the air and smelt blood. Human blood. His mouth watered, but he shook himself. Someone needed help. Ken ran towards the smell, and found himself heading towards the meeting area of the Avengers. Quite soon, the floor he was on gave way to the floor below, and he was forced to jump down.

He didn't see any signs of anyone, but was corrected after a moment when he heard a roar and saw the face of a certain female agent running towards him.

"Give me a lift up!" Natasha yelled. He barely had the time to process the request and put his hands together as a foot step before she was on him. She stepped into his hands, her other foot landed on his shoulder, and in a smooth move she leaped to the floor above them. As soon as she was no longer blocking his vision, however, it was filled with green.

"Kaneki! I'm leaving Hulk to you!" She shouted before disappearing to go do something else. Ken didn't really know what, or care, as at that moment, a fist of green smashed him into a wall.

"Oof!" He groaned, wrestling himself out of the metal wall. The Hulk was running past him toward the opening up to the next floor. Ken wasn't sure what was happening or why Banner had changed, but he did know that allowing the Hulk to go up to the next floor was a very bad idea. Hm, he wondered if he could break through the Hulk's skin. With that, he charged.

Ken leaped onto the Hulk's back, immediately tearing into the green flesh with his teeth. The Hulk roared and backed into a metal wall, crushing Ken and forcing him to relieve his grip as he cried out in pain. The Hulk then stepped forward and turned around, but Ken managed to glimpse that the spot on the beast's shoulder where he had bitten had already fully healed. That was an even greater healing factor than himself, and his was practically record breaking among ghouls.

Speaking of which, he threw himself to the side to avoid the follow-up punch from the beast. There was no way Ken was going to be able to beat it. He couldn't wear down the Hulk, only make it angrier. The only thing he could do was get it off the ship.

He let out a breath and released his kagune for the first time in two years. The limbs felt sluggish and fuzzy, like they had fallen asleep, but nonetheless they responded quickly. Ken dodged another punch from the Hulk, moving around the surprisingly fast beast smoothly. He sniffed the air, trying to find the thinnest wall by finding the freshest air. There was an opening just a little ways from them, thankfully.

Kaneki jumped up into the air, stabbing one of his kagune into the hulk to try and piss it off more. If the Hulk was focused on him, it would be less likely to try running off. What Kaneki wasn't expecting, however, was for the Hulk to grab his kagune and whip Ken around into a metal pillar. The force shattered several of his bones, and, he was quite sure, part of his skull. Quite suddenly, he felt disconnected from the world, as if watching from an outside point of view. The pain was overwhelming.

"1000...993...986..." He chanted to himself, focusing on the numbers. His breath flowed erratically, his mask had fallen off after being thrown through the metal. He had to survive. The pain in his head pulsed together with the roar of the Hulk. "The centipede...get it out!" He cried, moving his broken arm up towards his head. He wanted it out, out, out!

He felt his kagune pulse, and his bones heal, but the pain was still there. 10 days of having his limbs cut off and regrown, ten days of having his tongue pulled out and his body flayed, ten days of counting and of desperate hopes being crushed. It all rushed back. He felt something crawling on his face, and could only think it was the centipede. The centipede was crawling across his eye, across his back, and inside him. It hurt.

Then, the pain was compounded as he was lifted by his pulsing kagune. The Hulk roared in his face and threw him across the hold once more.

"979...972...965..." He counted. The centipede on his back twitched. He wanted to return it. Let them feel the pain he had. He stood up, his bones rapidly healing from the damage he had received, and then he moved. Instinctively, he attacked the lumbering green beast. His blows did not move it, but his teeth were able to tear at it, even if the Hulk healed so quickly there was no visible damage.

A fist crashed into the wall next to him, but Kaneki had already moved. He dodged around the Hulk, moving much faster than the green monster. In fact, it would be almost easy, if he could land a hit of his own. The best he was managing to do was scratches, mere scrapes with his teeth as he would leap over the Hulk, being careful to keep his kagune out of reach now. His stomach was starting to ache, and it was distracting. He was wondering if the small bits of Hulk he'd managed to consume were not digesting right, even if the Hulk was originally human.

In a moment of distraction, the Hulk managed to grab the end of one of his kagune, which he absently noted looked a bit different, almost like it had hundreds of little legs, little legs, little legs crawling about in his head. With a gasp of pain, he was thrown through a large door and into a cargo hold. The people screamed and scattered while he gasped for air.

Ken weakly pulled his kagune into himself, he felt starved and like he had no energy. The people running around...they all looked so tempting.

"Yes, grab a snack, it'll help with the fight. You don't even have to be the one to kill them if you don't want, why not let the Hulk give the finishing blow? He's got enough lives on his conscious already, one more won't hurt," Rize said lightly, stepping over the debris daintily. The image was ruined as the Hulk charged through the hallucination.

Ken rolled sideways to avoid the crashing fist. His kagune speared the floor, increasing his speed and moving him as an extension of his limbs. He dodged around the Hulk's continued punches, but the Hulk was screaming at him in rage and with each miss, it seemed to get faster. Ken was quickly tiring, he wouldn't be able to keep this up for much longer. The window to the outside was right there, if he could somehow get the Hulk out of the ship, he could survive this. The problem was, he couldn't fall out too, he wasn't sure he would survive a fall from this height.

Ken dodged another punch, leaping up and crawling across the ceiling before flipping down across Hulk's back and tearing at the green skin with his teeth. He swallowed it, despite his stomach ache. The thick skin rolled about in his mouth, like jerky, even as he ground it to swallow quickly. He would admit that it was giving him energy, and that it didn't taste absolutely terrible, but it did taste spoiled. Like drinking milk that was on the very edge of it's date, there was a sourness that lapped at the flavor, much like eating a ghoul. It gave him energy, and it did something to his kagune, he could feel his kagune pulse each time he swallowed a bite of the Hulk, but there was a mild pain as well.

The Hulk was getting faster. It roared and spun around, grabbing Ken once more and swinging him into the ground in front of the beast. He let out a gasp of pain, feeling his blood pool in his lungs, he allowed himself the luxury of coughing. His ribs felt broken once again, and there was a severe pain in the back of his head and neck. As the Hulk raised an arm to bash into him, Ken speared the hand through with his kagune in the hopes of delaying him.

The Hulk roared with pain and ripped the kagune out of his hand, tearing them apart. Ken cried out in pain as he saw the limbs fall to the ground around him. The Hulk roared in his face and clasped his hands together, lifting them up over his head to smash Ken into the ground. He tried to move, but he was so sore and tired, he couldn't seem to get his muscles to respond. Ken felt starved, and in pain, and the centipede was everywhere it was over his back over his face and in his head and he couldn't get it out. He had a moment to remember that Rize was killed by being crushed to death under hundreds of pounds of steel bars, and wondered if he was about to die in a similar fashion. Then the Hulk brought his hands down with a roar.


End file.
